Assay of Antibacterial Activity of Twenty various Endophytic Fungi Isolated from Calotropis procera

Calotropis procera is used in traditional medicine; it has a variety of therapeutic properties such as: analgesic, antimicrobial, cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, and anti-cancer effects. Rani et al., evaluated the endophytic fungi isolated from differenttissues of Calotropis procera for antibacterial properties.

Calotropis procera 

The authors found that of the total 20 endophytic fungal strains isolated, 7 exhibited antibacterial activity; these endophytic fungi belonged to the genus Aspergillus and Fusarium. The maximum zone of inhibition was exhibited by extracts of Aspergillus nomius, Aspergillus oryzae, Curvularia hawaiiensis, and Fusarium solani.  Endophytes are the organisms which are in an imperceptible relationship with the plant in which they reside for their whole lifetime or a part of their life. These include fungi, bacteria and some algae. They colonize all the plants evaluated till now and isolated from almost all the plant parts like leaves, roots, stems, flowers, barks and even from dry seeds. Read more>>>>>>

New Antiretrovirals on the Block: Pharmacological news from Croi 2017

The Conference on Retrovirus and Opportunistic Infections, CROI, 2017 at Seattle, USA, presented several new substances, therapy strategies and other data about the treatment of HIV/AIDS. The following article discusses a pharmacological selection of these, and shows data of new integrase inhibitors (INSTI), nucleoside (NRTI) and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI) as well as protease inhibitors (PI), CCR5-inhibitors and several long-acting antibodies or new formulations of already widely used drugs, such as Nano particle PI and NNRTI (NANO-NNRTI, NANO-PI).

Nukleos(t) ide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors

Karen White and colleagues presented the new NRTI GS-9131, which reveals strong activity against NRTI-resistant HIV-1.At a very low EC50 of only 0.16 μM (± 0.02) GS-9131 is still active against most of NRTI-resistant HIV-1, showing mutations of K65R, M184V, L74V/I, 6TAMs+184V or Q151M+M184V.Unlike TAF, GS-3131 is an adenosine-analogue. But alike TAF it is a prodrug, which is modified by cathepsin A into its intracellular form of GS-9148 and then phosphorylated by intracellular kinases into its antiretroviral active diphosphate.(Read more)

Isolation of a Peniophora Strain Capable of Producing Ethanol from Starch and Kitchen Waste

Worldwide greenhouse gas emissions are increasing and are thought to contribute to global warming, which has the potential to affect climate, ecosystems, and the spread of diseases. Among the various approaches to reduce greenhouse gas emission,the use of bioethanol has attracted international attention because it is a carbon-neutral fuel that is produced from naturally abundant biological materials. As bioethanol is predominantly derived from sugar or starch crops, it represents a sustainable, renewable, environmentally friendly transportation fuel that is a promising alternative to gasoline. Although bioethanol is increasingly being used as a fuel source around the world, the rapid increase in bioethanol use has also affected crop production patterns, resulting in increased food prices. 

Therefore, second-generation bioethanol production requires the development of economically feasible and sustainable processes utilizing renewable lignocellulosic materials that do not compete with food sources.Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant and inexpensive material available for bioethanol production. Lignocellulose, which is composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, is hydrolytically stable and is not readily broken down into fermentable sugars. Cellulose and hemicellulose are polysaccharides that can be hydrolyzed to hexose and pentose sugars, whereas lignin is a phenolic compound that cannot be used for ethanol production. A major practical limitation in biomass-to-ethanol conversion is the cost associated with the enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass, which requires enzymes such as cellulases.(Read more)